Whatever your views are on drug legalization, I would encourage you to see the recent votes to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington state as not so much about drug legalization but about state nullification of federal laws.  We have seen this before with the National ID Act of Bush the lessor.  States pushed back and the federal juggernaut crumbled…at least for a while.  

Whenever you hear some legislator (state or national) say “..the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land” or some other boot-licking comment, or hear another say, “..now we must set up the health exchanges required by the law,” the equivalent of building your own gallows, think about the message Colorado and Washington state have sent to D.C.  Basically they are saying, “we don’t care what the federal law says, we are going to do something different.”  ”Federal law has no authority here.”  

Eighteen states allow for medical marijuana, a violation of federal law.  Two now have made it legal for recreational use, seriously in violation of federal law.  Why can’t this concept of state nullification apply to the Unaffordable Care Act?  Sam Brownback, governor of Kansas has basically said their state wouldn’t participate in an exchange, federal or otherwise.  Without the exchanges, the Unaffordable Care Act is gone…dead. How many state governors would it take to send this law to the trash heap, joining the National ID Act, Prohibition and others?  

Mises said that authoritarian governments rely on their perceived legitimacy (not his exact quote).  This push back on drug laws should be seen for what it is:  a message of the illegitimacy of this over-reaching federal gunvernment.  

G. Keith Smith, M.D.